Armistead Boothe collection, 1920-1983
| Creator | Boothe, Armistead Leon (1907-1990) | |
| Description | Armistead Lloyd Boothe (1907-1990) was a lawyer and state legislator from Alexandria, Virginia. Boothe attended Episcopal High School, the University of Virginia, and Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He and his wife, Elizabeth Peele Boothe, were married in 1934.
Boothe served as a Democratic Virginia state legislator from 1948-1963. He was a prominent member of a group of legislators known as the “Young Turks” who opposed the entrenched establishment politicians of Virginia government. As noted in a 1970 news release, “he became perhaps best known for his consistent political fight, from 1954 on, to keep the public schools of the State open” after Virginia threatened to eliminate the mandate for public schools in order to oppose the Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education decision requiring school integration. Boothe also served as a trustee of Colonial Williamsburg. A lifelong Episcopalian, he left politics and the law in 1970 to serve as the Director of Development at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. Boothe died in 1990. The collection documents the life and political career of Armistead L. Boothe from his school days in Alexandria, Virginia, in the early 1920s to his role as Director of Development at Virginia Theological Seminary in the 1970s and his retirement in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Included are certificates, a few photos, and a letter from Boothe’s time as a student at Episcopal High School and the University of Virginia, travel and bank documents from his time in England in the 1920s and 1930s, and newspaper articles, speeches and writings, press releases, campaign materials, and correspondence from his days as a lawyer, politician, and director of development at Virginia Theological Seminary. Of particular interest is a 1969 letter to the parents of Mary Jo Kopechne, who was killed in the accident at Chappaquiddick in Ted Kennedy’s car. Also included in the collection are Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia briefs dating from the 1940s to the 1960s, as well as correspondence, agendas, news articles, etc, from Boothe’s role as a trustee of Colonial Williamsburg. |
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| Call number | C0268 | |
| Date from | 1920 | |
| Date to | 1983 | |
| Geographic school | Virginia (commonweath-wide) | |
| Size |
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| Access restrictions yes/no | no | |
| Access restrictions | —– | |
| Part Of larger collection yes/no | no | |
| Larger collection title | ||
| URL | https://scrc.gmu.edu/finding_aids/boothe.html | |
| Repository | George Mason University Libraries | |
| Repository address | Special Collection Research Center, Fenwick Library MS 2FL, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030 | |
| Repository contact name | Brittney Falter | |
| Repository contact title | Research Services Coordinator, Special Collection Research Center | |
| Repository contact email | speccoll@gmu.edu | |
| Repository contact phone | (703) 993-2220 | |
| DoveRegion | Region 6 | |
| Subjects | o African American students
o African Americans–Civil rights o African Americans–Segregation o Public schools o Race relations o School children o Segregation in education o Virginia, Northern o Public Schools of the District of Columbia |
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| Types | manuscripts |